Be Careful When Using An Automatic Teller Machine
The rising crime rate is a serious source of concern now.
I myself witness a snatch theft incident in front of my eyes and it occur in split of second.
This happen so unexpectedly and no wonder the victim cannot see(remember) the theft bike plate number.
Crime also can happen you are making a transaction at the Automatic Teller Machine(ATM).
Whenever you in the midst of making cash withdrawals at ATM counters, NEVER get distracted by other thing such as call out or tap on your shoulder!
The Police has warned the public to be aware of this scam.
The scam modus operandi is very simple.
The crime syndicates normally consist of a groups of two to three, including a woman.
They would scatter a few RM1 or RM10 notes on the floor near their intended victim while he or she in the midst of making cash withdrawals.
Usually the woman, would then call out or tap the victim on the shoulder to say that he or she had dropped the money.
As the victim get distracted and turns around or bends down to pick up the money on the floor, an accomplice would quickly swap the victim’s ATM card with a similar-looking card or take the victim’s card.
The unsuspecting victim would then collect the cash dispensed from the ATM and walk away with someone else’s ATM card while their own card is in the crooks’ possession.
When your ATM card is fallen to the organised crime syndicates, a lot of nasty thing could happen.
Read the below newspaper extract, for real life experience sharing.
Police has urged those approached in a similar fashion to stop their transaction immediately and contact the police or bank security.
In short, NEVER get distracted in the midst of doing ATM transactions.
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Cash gone after moment’s distraction
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PETALING JAYA: A moment’s distraction — that’s all it takes for one to fall victim to a scam that could lead to one’s bank account being wiped almost clean.
Police today warned of a scam whereby thieves have siphoned off thousands of ringgit after they cunningly steal ATM cards and PIN numbers from unsuspecting bank customers.
Unlike a hit carried out by organised crime syndicates using ATM card skimmers and sophisticated gadgets, the cases recorded by police nationwide involve a simple method.
A Bukit Aman police official told theSun the thieves would usually work in groups of two to three, including a woman.
"Their target are those in the midst of making cash withdrawals at ATM counters," said the official.
"One of them would scatter a few RM1 or RM10 notes on the floor near their intended victim while he or she in the midst of a banking transaction.
"One of them, usually the woman, would then call out or tap the victim on the shoulder to say that he or she had dropped the money.
"And just as the confused victim is distracted and turns around or bends down to pick up the money on the floor, an accomplice would quickly swap the victim’s ATM card with a similar-looking card, probably that of a recent victim.
"One of them would have earlier spied on the victim’s PIN number as it was being punched on the machine at the start of the transaction.
"The unsuspecting victim would collect the cash dispensed from the ATM and walk away with someone else’s ATM card while their own card is in the crooks’ possession."
In the latest incident on Feb 12, a 47-year-old newspaperman lost all his savings in three accounts at a bank.
The incident occured at about 4pm on Jalan Masjid Negeri in Penang, when C.H. Ng was withdrawing money using his ATM card.
Just as the machine was dispensing the cash, a woman tapped him on his shoulder and told him some money had fallen out from his pocket.
"I looked down and saw two RM10 notes and several RM1 notes on the floor near my feet," Ng said.
He quickly picked up the notes and thanked the woman and returned his attention to the ATM.
"To my relief, the money dispensed by the ATM machine was untouched. I had heard of similar cases where people lost their money after being momentarily distractedm" he said.
Ng said he retrieved the ATM card and left the bank with his money.
However, when he visited an ATM machine to withdraw money near his office in Petaling Jaya last Friday, he was shocked to find that the ATM card was not his but belonged to a woman.
He checked his accounts online and found that money from his three accounts had been wiped out and had balances of only RM2, RM5 and RM30, respectively.
Ng lodged a police report at the SEA Park police station in Petaling Jaya.
Police say one of the earliest reported case involving the same method was in June last year when a credit card agent last RM5,000 in Seri Gombak.
The victim told police he saw three Middle Eastern-looking people, including a woman, in the bank when he went to withdraw money at night.
Just as the machine was dispensing cash, a woman called out to him in a foreign language and pointed to some bank notes on the floor.
The victim initially did not pick up the money but the woman kept gesturing for him to pick up the notes and even indicated that she had back pain.
The victim reluctantly picked up the cash but the woman and a man standing behind him left the bank in a hurry.
The victim put the money back on the floor and turned to continue his banking transaction but it failed.
He ejected the card and re-inserted it into the slot and, to his suprise, the name that appeared on the screen was someone else’s.
By the time he called the bank to freeze his account, the thieves had withdrawn his money from another location.
Police urged those approached in a similar fashion to stop their transaction immediately and contact the police or bank security.
fr:sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=43664
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Police warn of new tactic to steal ATM cards
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KUALA LUMPUR: Police have come upon a new tactic by foreign badhats to steal automated teller machine (ATM) cards at ATM machines around Brickfields.
The gang is made up of two to three men and a woman all in their 30s.
Brickfields police district chief ACP Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid said their tactic was to stand close behind or beside to observe the victim withdrawing money.
"After the victim withdraws the money and begins to take the ATM card, one person will tap the shoulder of the victim and when the victim turns the suspect will tell the victim that his or her money had fallen on the floor. At the same time another person in the group will take the victim’s card or switch the card," Wan Abdul Bari told Bernama when contacted here today.
He said when the victim turns to look for the so-called money on the floor the suspects would flee and when the victim turns to the ATM machine he or she will find the card missing or would be unaware that the card had been switched with another card.
"When the victim checks the account balance he or she will find that money had been withdrawn from the account," he said.
"We advise people to be alert when withdrawing money especially in this festive season," he said.
Till now there had been four cases in the district.
Meanwhile, police have arrested a 20-year-old man who is believed to have sweet-talked and then stolen from several teenaged girls.
According to Wan Abdul Bari the suspect portrays himself as the son of a Tan Sri or Datuk over the Internet and coaxed the victims to go out with him.
"After several meetings, the victims will have confidence in the suspect. At some time the suspect would take the victim out and when she goes to the ladies, the suspect would tell her to leave her bag, laptop and valuables in his car.
"He then takes off with the things," he said.
He said police had seized a laptop, documents, car keys, various SIM cards, pen drives and several personal belongings of victims.
Besides that a police check revealed the suspect’s car was a vehicle reported stolen in Kota Damansara.
"The suspect is still under remand and will be brought to court soon," he said.
fr:sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=37352
Revenge of the machines
There are few things as frustrating as ATMs that don’t work.
BANKING chores used to be tedious and time-consuming once upon a time. Then came ATMs to save humans much time and trouble.
As the decades passed, these machines grew in number and power. First, they merely dispensed cash but their abilities expanded. And they operated well beyond office hours and on holidays, too. Imagine life today without ATMs.
Oh, wait, here’s a truth we don’t want to hear – ATMs break down as well. Just when you need them the most.
How many times have you gone to an ATM at night to deposit a cheque or extract some cash, and found the equivalent of Microsoft’s “blue screen of death” on the display: “Out of service temporarily”?
This happens to me regularly with a particular bank near my house. Almost every other month over the past year, when I have swung by at night to drop in a cheque, the machine was out of service. Now, I get really mad at such times because it means making the trip again the next morning. Sometimes, even then, the machine was still down.
The third time this happened, I called up the bank.
“What’s the point in providing a service if it’s not working when I need it?” I asked.
“Sorry, sir, technical problem, we’re doing something about it,” I was told.
Earlier this month, when I went there on a weekday morning, the machine was down again, which necessitated using the manual deposit system – you know, handing the cheque over to the teller at the counter.
I let off steam again.
“Oh, it’s a Telekom problem, our lines have been down for three days,” the lady told me.
Oh, that was convenient. But can a bank afford to have its online system down for three days? The staff didn’t seem too perturbed.
This wasn’t the only bank that was a letdown for me this way. Another bank I patronise provides “electronic” boxes into which you can drop your cheque, and the box dispenses an acknowledgement slip. However, if it’s an extended weekend, these boxes clog up and shut down.
Once, a call to the bank’s 24-hour line elicited a helpful suggestion.
“Perhaps you could try another branch, sir,” the guy told me.
“I tried three already, same thing. Where else do you want me to go?” I asked, miffed.
“Sorry, sir, you’ll have to wait until the next working day then.”
“Look, you’re a bank, don’t you think you should have people on standby over such long weekends to take care of these things?” I snarled.
“We’ll pass on the suggestion, thank you, sir,” was the polite answer.
One bank lets you drive and drop off your cheques in a large box with no electronics. It has a number of such boxes, so there is no breakdown of the system. But I haven’t been to that bank in years, so I can’t say exactly how this has worked out.
I know I will get mail suggesting that I do my transactions online, but look, if I want to drop a cheque into an ATM, I expect to be able to do it at any time. Banks should think of ways to keep their ATMs – whether for cash or cheques – working continuously, especially over long weekends. Surely some kind of monitoring system can be implemented?
My missus, though, has a different take on my travails.
“It’s just your lousy luck,” she said.
Ah, well, trust a woman to offer an alternative perspective.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/3/19/columnists/nottoday/5864467&sec=nottoday
Couple who tricked banks with fraudulent withdrawals arrested
By M. KUMAR
KUALA LUMPUR: A young couple has been arrested for “tricking” banks. They would deposit fake money into a cash deposit machine (CDM) and withdraw real cash from an auto-teller machine (ATM).
Within a month, they had withdrawn up to RM23,000.
However, bank officials got wise to their game.
Police laid a trap for the couple after bank officials detected the trick at three of their branches in Johor Bahru.
The man and his wife were caught red-handed.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department deputy operations director Asst Comm Rohaimi Md Isa told a press conference yesterday the couple committed the crime almost daily and, at times, would withdraw up to RM1,000 a day.
In another case, police arrested 21 people — most of them Africans — for running “parcel scams.”
The police also seized 13 laptops, 16 mobile phones, several bundles of counterfeit US$100 bills, and RM42,979 in cash.
The scam involves a syndicate member approaching a prospective victim to say there is a parcel from overseas to be delivered to him or her.
The victim would then receive a call from another syndicate member, impersonating as a customs officer, who would ask for some cash to be sent to a bank before the item can be cleared by the Customs.
The syndicates’ victims were largely single women in their 40’s, who they befriended via the Internet.
ACP Rohaimi said that this was not a new scam as there were 591 cases — with reported losses of RM16mil — last year.
“This year, there have so far been 253 cases with RM4.7mil in losses,” he said.
ACP Rohaimi said a Malaysian woman was among those arrested. They are all in their 20s and 30s.
They were picked following a series of raids in the Klang Valley over the past two weeks.
“This syndicate is responsible for 83 parcel scams, with losses of up to RM500,000.”
ACP Rohaimi said some members of these syndicates were also involved in “black money” scams.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/9/nation/6633577&sec=nation
Hunt for three ATM cheats
KLUANG: Police here are on the lookout for three men, including one believed to be from South America, preying on people withdrawing money from ATMs.
Kluang OCPD Asst Comm Fawzi Arshad said the culprits would surround their victims while they were withdrawing cash from ATMs before striking.
“Most of the time, the victim is alone at the ATM. While waiting for the cash to be dispensed by the machine, the culprit behind would drop some bank notes onto the floor and tap the victim on the shoulder as a distraction.
“Another culprit will then quickly swipe the victims’ ATM card with a fake one while another memorises the pin number,” he said.
ACP Fawzi said once the victim had left with the fake ATM card, the suspects would use the original to make cash withdrawals, adding that the police had received six reports against the syndicate.
He said all the victims involved had identified one of the suspects to be from South America while two others were believed to be locals.
“The police have images of the suspects captured through the CCTVs installed at ATMs and we are tracking them down,” he said.
ACP Fawzi urged those making ATM withdrawals to avoid being alone and to be wary of their surroundings.
On another matter, he cautioned people against befriending those they met on social networking sites on the Internet, such as Facebook.
fr:thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/9/18/nation/7057984&sec=nation